I’m a huge proponent of reusing and recycling, of making unique items from found objects, and of finding super-inexpensive solutions for everyday needs. I like to spend my valuable dollars on luscious yarns and exciting new patterns instead!!

When my Aunt Marian passed away, I inherited her knitting supplies which included a large quantity of straight needles.

Just a handful of Aunt Marian's needles

I prefer using circulars most of the time, but I certainly would never part with Aunt Marian’s needles. They have so much sentimental value, plus you never know when you’ll need a pair of US10 straights to manuever a 3-needle bind-off.

The big question was, where to store them? Clutching a bunch of needles in one hand, it came to me…a tube of some sort. Something with hard sides to keep them safe in my knitting backpack. (I’ll show you the backpack in my next post.) I save just about everything that could have a future use , so I made a beeline for my wrapping paper tube collection in the attic. Hey, the tubes I saved are really heavy duty!! I couldn’t throw them away!

Heavy duty wrapping paper tubes rock!

I measured and cut a length of wrapping paper tube about an inch longer than my longest needle. Then I grabbed an empty toilet paper tube (no, I don’t save these!…I just happened to have one in my cardboard recycling bin) and gave it a try. Just as I suspected, it fit perfectly over the wrapping paper tube. I cut a length of about two inches to serve as a removeable cap.

Next, I needed solid ends for my knitting needle tube. I dug around in my cardboard recycling and found a nice piece of stiff cardboard, the kind from the back of a paper tablet. I traced my tube ends onto it, cut them out and used packing tape to secure them on the ends of the tube and the cap.

Naked knitting needle storage tube

Voila! I had a super-sturdy container for my straight knitting needles!

It was super-sturdy, but it was a little too industrial-looking. So I whipped out my bag of yarn labels, a pair of scissors, a bottle of white glue, and got busy.

I love the varied designs of yarn labels!

The result?…a very cute knitting needle case! I had some laminating paper in my office stash, so I put a piece of that over the entire tube to protect the labels from frequent handling. But I don’t think you necessarily have to do that.

Completed knitting needle case

As you can see, I left the section of the tube under the cap bare because my cap has a snug fit.

Okay, now for the bizarre part of all this. I swear that today I had myself scheduled to sit down and create this blog. (I’m trying to be a better blogger in 2011.) But I always check my inbox before launching into my work, and believe it or not….**twilight zone music here**…Kathleen Cubley of Knitting Daily posted a wonderful article this morning on creating a label-decoupaged needle box! Make sure you read it…she has some excellent tips.

3 responses to “Make Your Own Knitting Needle Case!”

Thank you for the tips on this tube -had started trying to invent one for my 10″ needles in my bag while traveling. I have a heavy cardboard tube but thought to make a fabric cover for it and was still working out the cap — thanks to your blog, I think I got it!!! Thank you so much!!